Rübezahl

Rübezahl (, ; ) is a folkloric mountain spirit ( woodwose) of the Giant Mountains (, , hence his name in Czech and Polish), a mountain range along the border between Czechia and Poland. He is the subject of many legends and fairy tales in German, Polish, and Czech folklore.

Name

The origin of the name is not clear. One interpretation is from the story ''How Rübezahl Got his Name'' by Johann Karl August Musäus, which recounts how Rübezahl abducted a princess who liked turnips (, singular ''Rübe''). The princess gets very lonely there in the mountains. To keep her company, Rübezahl turns the turnips into her friends and acquaintances. As the turnips wilt after a little while, so do the persons that were created by Rübezahl's magic. The princess asks him to count (''zählen'') the turnips in the field. While he counted, she escaped. Following this explanation, some early English writers translated his name as "Number Nip" (that is, "turnip numberer"), including the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Another proposed etymology is ''Riebezagel'', from a combination of the personal name ''Riebe'' and the Middle High German ''zagel'', meaning "tail", from his pictorial representation as a tailed demon. According to the etymologist Friedrich Kluge, the name is a contraction of Middle High German ''Ruobezagel'', ‘turnip-tail’.

''Rübezahl'' is a name of ridicule, the use of which provokes his anger. In fact calling him by this nickname was the one crime he would not tolerate. Respectful names are "Lord of the Mountain(s)" (Herr vom Berge, Herr der Berge), "Treasure Keeper" (Schatzhüter) or among herbalists "Lord John" (Herr Johannes, Latin vocative: ''Domine Johannes''). In one Silesian folktale, he is called "Prince of the Gnomes" (''Fürst der Gnomen'').Elizabeth Knowles, ed. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 940.

The Polish name ''Liczyrzepa'' is a direct translation of the German name, introduced by Stanisław Bełza in 1898. It only became widespread in Poland after 1945 when Józef Sykulski started to translate tales of Rübezahl from German into Polish.
The Czech name, ''Krakonoš'', is simply derived from the name of the mountains.

Legends

In legends, Rübezahl appears as a capricious giant, gnome, or mountain spirit. With good people he is friendly, teaching them medicine and giving them presents. If someone derides him, however, he exacts a severe revenge. He sometimes plays the role of a trickster in folk tales.

The stories originate from pagan times. Rübezahl is the fantastic lord of weather of the mountains and is similar to the Wild Hunt. Unexpectedly or playfully, he sends lightning and thunder, fog, rain and snow from the mountain above, even while the sun is shining. He may take the appearance of a monk in a gray frock (like Wotan); he holds a stringed instrument in his hand (the storm harp) and walks so heavily that the earth trembles around him.

In Czech fairytales, Rübezahl () gave sourdough to people and invented the traditional regional soup '' kyselo''. In the Giant Mountains is a mountain named Kotel, which means cauldron. When fog rises from the valley at the bottom of the Kotel, people say that Krakonoš is cooking ''kyselo''. Rübezahl is seen to be the guardian of the Giant Mountains. Physically, his appearance varies; he can take any form he wishes, from an old grandma to a giant crossing his mountains with one step. Historically, his character has kept on expanding; from a bad demon causing storms and heavy snow, he evolved into a guardian of the poor people living in his mountains. It is said that he could test someone at any time to know whether that person's heart is pure (e.g. meeting someone as an old lady asking for help) and that if one does, that person would be shown the way to treasures hidden deep inside his mountains. He punished the German landlords mistreating Czech people as well as any invaders.

Socha Krakonoše, Hořice.JPG, Sculpture of Krakonoš in Hořice
Rübezahl.jpg, Rubezahl woodcarving in the Polish Giant Mountains
Moritz von Schwind 008.jpg, "Rübezahl" by Moritz von Schwind (1859)
Trutnov, fontanna Karkonosza na rynku(Aw58).JPG, The 3-metre high Krakonoš Fountain in Trutnov

Museum

A museum devoted to the figure of Rübezahl in the German town of Görlitz, the Rübezahl Museum, was opened in May 2005, thanks to the work of Ingrid Vettin-Zahn. Originally from Lauban (Lubań) in Lower Silesia, Vettin-Zahn was expelled from her hometown like other Silesian Germans and subsequently resettled in Switzerland after 1945.

Postwar Polonization of the myth

The modern Polish version of the figure arose in 1945, when Polish immigrants arrived in the then German land. Józef Sykulski saw in Rübezahl a Slav who protected the Slavic natives against German oppression. In the Polish version, common people were given Slavic names while the lords obtained German names. Sykulski also framed the myth in the context of the Communist concept of class struggle. However, Polonization of the figure was also met by opposition because it was supposedly too much of a German figure.

Appearances in literature

Rübezahl was first mentioned in 1565 as ''Ribicinia'' in a poem by Franz von Koeckritz. The Rübezahl story was first collected and written down by Johannes Praetorius in the (1662). The character later appeared in Johann Karl August Musäus's "" (1783), Carl Hauptmann's (1915) and Otfried Preußler's (1993). Poems include Ferdinand Freiligrath's "" (1844) and Robert Reinick's "" (1876). New short stories featuring Rübezahl were also written, such as Johann August Apel's "" in (vol 3, 1811), and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's "" (1814) and "" (1816). In Britain this included three new "Legends of Number-Nip" (1826–1828) by Scottish authors the Misses Corbett, and the unfinished story "The Lord of the Hills" () by Thomas Love Peacock.

Several German Rübezahl tales have been translated into English, including eight of Praetorius' stories by William John Thoms (1834); many translations of Musäus' tales, notably by Thomas Beddoes (1791), William Hazlitt (1845), and Mark Lemon (1863); Apel, Fouqué, and Henrik Steffens' stories by George Godfrey Cunningham (1829); five of Johann Peter Lyser's tales by Elizabeth F. Ellet (1847); and Rosalie Koch's version by Charles Nordhoff (1858) and Mary Catherine Rowsell (1864). Freiligrath's Rübezahl poem was also translated into English as "From the Mountains of Silesia" by Mary Howitt (1844), and Franz Abt's singspiel ''Rübezahl'' by William Grist (c. 1888).

The Rübezahl legends also inspired other stories. He may have been the inspiration for the character Huhn in Gerhart Hauptmann's "". The poem "Count Carrots" by Gerda Mayer is based on the tale and appears in ''The Oxford Book of Story Poems''. Rübezahl is mentioned in Mike Mignola's '' Hellboy: Conqueror Worm'' (2001) by the character Inger Von Klempt.

Rübezahl's Garden

Near Mount Sněžka in Czechia close to the Polish border, there is a botanical locality with an especially large variety of plants that bears the name "Rübezahl's Garden". Some unusual stone buildings in the area are named after him as well, for example the .

In the vicinity of Jelenia Góra and other Polish locales under the Giant Mountains, there is an annual series of opera performances titled , which translates into English as "Rübezahl's Musical Garden". In 2016, the series commenced for the thirteenth time.

In music

* Joseph Schuster: opera ''Rübenzahl, ossia Il vero amore'' (1789 Trieste)
*Carl Maria von Weber: romantic opera ''Rübezahl'' (1805 Breslau)
*Franz Danzi: romantic opera ''Der Berggeist oder Schicksal und Treue'' (1813 Karlsruhe)
* Wilhelm Würfel: opera ''Rübezahl'' (1824 Prague)
*Louis Spohr: opera ''Der Berggeist'' (1825 Kassel)
* August Conradi: comic opera ''Rübezahl'' (1849 Berlín)
* Francis Edward Bache: operetta ''Rubezahl'' (1853)
* Friedrich von Flotow: opera ''Rübezahl'' (1852 Retzin, Groß Pankow)
*Gustav Mahler: opera ''Rübezahl'' (1879–83), music lost but libretto preserved
* Franz Abt: singspiel ''Rübezahl'' (1884 Offenbach)
* Arthur H. Bird: ballet ''Rübezahl'' (1887)
* Josef Richard Rozkošný: opera '' Krakonoš'' (1889 Prague)
* Hans Sommer: opera '' Rübezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neiße'' (1904 Braunschweig)
*Erich Wolfgang Korngold: movement No. 3 of ''Märchenbilder'' Op. 3 (1911 Karlsbad)
* Amon Düül II: instrumental psychedelic rock track ''The Return of Rübezahl'' on the LP '' Yeti (album)'' (1970)
*Jan Klusák: opera pasticcio ''Bertram a Mescalinda aneb Potrestaná věrnost též Očarované housle Einsteinovy čili Krakonošův dar'' (2002 Praha)
*Dschinghis Khan: song ''Rübezahl'' from LP ''Helden, Schurken & der Dudelmoser'' (1982)
*Joachim Witt: albums ''Rübezahl'' (2018), ''Rübezahls Rückkehr'' (2020) and ''Rübezahls Reise'' (2022)

In film

*'' Rübezahl's Wedding'' (1916)
* '' Rübezahl'' (1957)

Krakonoš

The Czech variant of Rübezahl, ''Krakonoš'', features in literature and in other culture:

* Krakonoš played an important role in old local legends in the Giant Mountains, which have been collected since 1618. To the present day Krakonoš features as the principal character in many regional folk-tales.
* Krakonoš appeared as a main character in the Czech children's television series '' Krkonošské pohádky'' () broadcast in the program Večerníček.
* A brewery located in Trutnov makes " Krakonoš" beer.
* According to Krakonoš it was named '' Solitalea''-like bacterium ''Krakonobacterium''.

Further reading

* Henning Eichberg: ''Rübezahl. Historischer Gestaltwandel und schamanische Aktualität.'' In: Jahrbuch ''der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau'', Sigmaringen, 1991; 32: 153-178.
* Stephan Kaiser: ''Der Herr der Berge Rübezahl''. Katalog zur Ausstellung. Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott: Museum für schlesische Landeskunde, 2000 (Hrsg.)

References

;Citations

;Bibliography

External links

Musäus: ''Rübezahl und das Hirschberger Schneiderlein''
illustrated by Arpad Schmidhammer, Fischer & Franke, Berlin 1901


on Projekt Gutenberg-DE







muellers-lesezeit.de


''Rübezahl - Duch Gór - Rybecal'' by Ullrich Junker & Izabela Taraszczuk, Bodnegg - Jelenia Góra 2003 on Digital Library of Jelenia Góra



(emergency banknotes) Small currency notes from the town of Greiffenberg depicting the legend of Rübezahl

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubezahl

Czech folklore
Earth spirits
German legendary creatures
Giants
Legendary gnomes
Medieval legends
Polish folklore
Slavic legendary creatures
Sudetes
Wild men